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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22900162">whims of fate</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/theholylight/pseuds/theholylight'>theholylight</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Persona 5, Persona Series</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Developing Relationship, Established Relationship, F/F, Gen, M/M, au where they do saes palace before okumura, besides kasumi being there are no spoilers for royal, but thats about it since this fic focuses on royal not scramble, his persona codename and where he comes from, i just wanted to include him because i love his character, not all of the relationships are established, scramble spoilers for zenkichi being there</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 12:28:27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,088</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22900162</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/theholylight/pseuds/theholylight</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>They knew who the Phansite was saying that they should be focusing on next for a change of heart...</p><p>... well, they would have gone ahead and done that request if it weren't for a surprising turn of events.</p><p>(Or, Makoto speaks up and they begin exploring Sae's Palace earlier)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist, Hasegawa Zenkichi &amp; Akechi Goro, Kitagawa Yusuke/Sakamoto Ryuji, Niijima Makoto/Takamaki Ann, Sakura Futaba/Yoshizawa Kasumi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>38</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. speak up</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Guys... I have something to say." </p><p>Everyone stopped what they were doing - which was just meeting up in Ren's room to check on who was at the top of the Phansite's list for the next change of heart - when Makoto's somewhat meek voice resounded in the otherwise silent room, which was actually what caused them to stop, for Makoto hadn't sounded like that for quite a while now... </p><p>"Makoto-senpai, what's the matter?" Kasumi, who was relaxing on Ren's bed next to Futaba, asked. Her red eyes were filled with worry for the older girl, who seemed to be debating on something in her head, Ann-senpai slowly reaching out to grab her hand in comfort and support. Well, the redhead always believed that they were cute, so this came as not surprise to her, though she believed that they weren't big on public affection... not that it was the matter right now, for the brunette continued in a much more level voice.</p><p>"It's not really a ... problem ... I guess... but I've been noticing the signs and attempting to ignore them... it just won't work." the student council president shook her head, eyes firmly on Ren but her tone made it obvious that she was talking with everyone currently present in the room. "It's about my sister..."</p><p>"... huh!? Is something wrong with Sae-san!?..."</p><p>"... no, Ryuji, there isn't." Makoto continued despite the interruption, moving to look at the blonde. "At least, I didn't think so... but... Sis may have a Palace. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you earlier but..."</p><p>"It's okay, Mako-chan." soothingly, Ann squeezed her hand and turned to look at Ren as well. "Leader, can we do this? I know you were intending to just accept the quest of whoever is first in votes on the Phansite, but I think this is important, for the sake of Makoto and her sister and..."</p><p>"No, need to explain it, Ann." Ren reached up to adjust his glasses, eyes sweeping over everyone as he watched Yusuke lean in to ask Ryuji something and the blonde blushing a bit before responding to him in an equally quiet tone, which was unusual for him but he wouldn't complain. He was happy that his best friend found someone and they truly complimented each other well. "Now the topic on hand is that we will be doing Sae-san's Palace, before any of the Phansite requests. Any objections?"</p><p>Everyone shook their heads, for they felt like that this is something they had to, or at least that was something that Ren's gut feeling was telling him...</p><p>"I will do my best, Senpai!" Kasumi smiled, looking confident. He shot her a smile, knowing that she would be fine. It was her first Palace exploration with them but... better later than never, right? Mementos experience could only take her so far.</p><p>"In that case, the meeting's over..."</p><p>"... hold on, anyone seen Morgana?" Futaba's voice carried across the room, causing the rest of the group to look at her before at each other with confusion. Indeed, in the conversation that Makoto's confession ensured, they had forgotten that one of their key members was not around... Ren decided to ignore this nagging feeling, for now. </p><p>"No, but I'm sure he is fine. See you guys tomorrow, we will be looking for a map first and doing as much as we can in our first go. Be ready for everything!"</p><p>"Right, leader!"</p>
<hr/><p>"Oh, Ren-kun..." Goro put his cup of coffee down as he watched the last of Amamiya's friends - that gymnast, he believed her name was Yoshizawa? - leave, which left him and the leader of the Phantom Thieves by themselves, for Sojiro had gone ahead home, muttering about something like 'curry' and 'dinner'. The brunet hadn't asked. "... I see you guys were busy with studying... on a Sunday?" </p><p>"Ah, yes..." something sparkled in the young teen's eyes. Goro wanted him to confess already, eye slowly twitching in annoyance. "Makoto is really meticulous.. then again, so are you, aren't you Goro?"</p><p>"I... well.... of course..."</p><p>Flustered, Goro failed to realize that it was just an attempt to divert his attention until he had already gone home, frowning. He couldn't let this... crush... he had on Amamiya, potentially be a problem for his mission... he just couldn't. He needed to get himself together.</p>
<hr/><p>The following Monday after school, the Phantom Thieves found themselves in front of the court house, where Makoto had theorized that her sister's Palace would manifest.</p><p>"Alright, so we need to come up with the key words..." she began but Futaba interrupted, shaking her head. </p><p>"No worries, this should be a breeze! She probably sees it as a place where she always wins, right? You did say that her case with us was driving her up the wall so..."</p><p>"<strong><em>Candidate Found...</em></strong>"</p><p>"... there you go." the navigator finished as the world around them began to crumble and re-arrange, all of them already sporting their Phantom Thief outfits. Seemed like Sae-san already saw them as a threat... as Joker went on ahead to detail the general idea for this first run of the Palace as well as picking his front line members, Navi stayed behind, unable to shake the feeling that she was forgetting about something...</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. thieves in the palace</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The Phantom Thieves start exploring Sae's Palace and there may or may not be sparks flying between two of the members in the group.</p><p>Meanwhile, Goro Akechi begins to set his plan in motion to stop the Thieves by having them go after Okumura, not knowing about their unexpected decision nor the surprise awaiting him...</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Alright, everyone. Stay safe." </p><p>Navi watched as Joker left with his main party for this first exploration that they were doing - Skull, Panther and Queen - while Fox and their newest member were left behind with her... which reminded her of the fact that they've forgotten to give Kasumi a codename and that Morgana was <strong><em>nowhere</em></strong> to be found. Frowning, the redhead wondered where the not-cat went, for she was certain that he was with Ren the last time she saw them, did something happen in the meantime? Bad enough that Mona wouldn't want to explore the Palace with them? Did he disagree with them not doing Okumura's Palace first since he was still firmly sitting in the number one spot on the Phansite...?</p><p>"Ehm, Sakura-san... ah, it's Navi, right? My bad, I just wanted to ask if we have to stay here until they return or can we do some exploration ourselves?"</p><p>"Well, Joker usually takes a handful of us with him while the remaining numbers wait." Fox interrupted before she could formulate a response for Kasumi. "However, I don't believe that we were explicitly told to not explore Palaces without him, it was always more so a silent, mutual understanding... now then, Navi, what do you think?"</p><p>"I was just about to get to that before you stopped me, Inari." Futaba rolled her eyes. "Anyway, yeah, he is right. We usually don't explore Palaces or Mementos without Joker around to lead us, I think it's merely formality since he is our leader and can use the largest number of different Persona. Besides, this Palace looks difficult and I'm not sure Inari here can fight well on his own, since I can't and I don't think you are used to it yet, Yoshizawa-san...?"</p><p>Kasumi shook her head. "Sorry, I'm not... it's just, I feel bad waiting here instead of helping... hope that made sense?"</p><p>"It does." Yusuke nodded, looking out at the casino briefly before facing the two girls again. "By the by, we still haven't decided on a codename for you, yes? The usual process is that one of us will come up with one they like and we will go with it or everyone comes up with suggestions and Joker accepts one. However, I don't believe that he would mind us giving you one here since it would be awkward to call you by your real world name during moments like this, despite Navi here still calling me by that atrocious nickname..."</p><p>"... you do realize you earned it, right, Inari...?" </p><p>Futaba's complaining was interrupted by a giggle, and she had to look at Kasumi in shock. </p><p>"I'm sorry, I just find your banter to be cute.. eh, are you two...?"</p><p>"No!" Yusuke shook his head before Futaba could even do the same. "I'm afraid not, you see, my other self went away with Joker this time, I apologize if we confused you..."</p><p>"I see... wait, you are dating ... Sakamoto-senpai?" Kasumi's eyes widened. "Because it doesn't seem like you are describing Takamaki-senpai or Niijima-senpai..."</p><p>"Yes, yes he is before he goes on about some sort of artistic bout over Ryuji's beauty or something like that." Futaba cut in as Yusuke seemed to be ready to do just that. "Ann and Makoto are dating each other, by the way. I'm ... ehm... single ... and to my knowledge, so is Joker but who knows, he is rather private about those matters, even with us. Regardless, the Phantom Thieves don't discriminate, it would be rather hypocritical if we did, no?"</p><p>"Okay, that makes sense." the girl nodded, adjusting her long, black coat for a bit. "I admire Ren-senpai, but I don't think I feel that way about him..." her eyes briefly passed Futaba, causing the girl to let out a confused noise before the gymnast went on. "... never mind that, as for my codename ... how about Mist? Kasumi can be Japanese for 'mist', after all?"</p><p>"Hmm, it's rather blunt but it should do the trick..."</p><p>"Says the guy who we named after his mask." Futaba snarked, causing them to go into another bout of banter, Kasumi beside them giggling absent-mindly, the words they said getting her to think...</p><hr/><p>"Joker." Queen began, turning to look at the elevator which her sister's Shadow just used as her escape route. "I don't think we can follow her, I tried but it's asking me for a member's card..."</p><p>"A member's card? We don't have anything like that..." Panther pouted, walking up to stand beside her girlfriend to look at the little security check of this Palace, one of the few they found so far, at any rate. "... what do we do now? And no, Skull, before you say anything I don't believe prying it open will work."</p><p>"Guess we will just have to go and look for it." Joker supplied before Skull could exclaim how that wasn't what he was going to say at all. "Everyone, fall back behind me, I have a feeling that this is going to be a long one... Navi, can you hear me?"</p><p>
  <em>"Stupid Inari, stop poisoning Mist's image of me and... oh, hey Joker! Guessing you got into a sticky situation?"</em>
</p><p>"Yes, we did... I'm not even going to ask what is going on over there and... Mist?"</p><p>
  <em>"That's the codename we chose for Kasumi, or rather, she for herself... hope that's okay? Anyway, it's just Inari being Inari. I assume you need to find a way to this Member's Card? Yes, I was listening in, shocking I know... anyway, this is what you have to do..."</em>
</p><hr/><p>"Shido-san, it's been going well, don't worry." Goro sighed, in his head of course because he was on the phone with his 'father' and that kind of reaction to his pointless rambling could cost him dearly. "I just need to ensure that they go after Okumura next, I do believe they just finished Futaba Sakura's Palace so it shouldn't be too soon... ah, yes, yes... I am keeping an eye on them, no need to be worried... huh, a partner? Wait, I never needed a partner before, Shido-san, so why...?"</p><p>Was he not doing well enough on his own? But instead of replacing him, Shido was giving him someone to work with? Goro wasn't sure which of these options insulted him more but before he could ask, Shido cut the call off, leaving him to gather his thoughts alone, as always. He could feel Loki seething inside of him, but held it back, not hearing even a sound from Robin Hood but that was to be expected, for he appeared one day out of thin air and the detective prince still wasn't absolutely certain on how that happened... before his train of thought could continue down that path, a voice stopped him in his tracks.</p><p>"Hey, you are Goro Akechi, correct? The Detective Prince? I'm Zenkichi Hasegawa, your new partner as appointed by the director and recently transferred from Kyoto, it's nice to meet you and hope we work well together."</p><p>Freezing, the brunet turned around to face the man, who seemed quite a bit older, glasses gleaming in a completely different manner from Shido's and yet...</p><p>"Ah, yes... I am, it's nice to meet you, Hasegawa-san."</p><p>Now, time to see how he was going to deal with this mess...</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Aside from the Palaces being completed in a different order, there will be other differences in this AU.</p><p>Likewise, in regards to Kasumi, I will be using a different codename to avoid spoilers (just in case anyone asks me why I didn't use her canonical codename, as of me writing this intro, Royal is still a month away from being released in the West)</p><p>I'm curious to see if anyone will guess which ones they will be. Thank you for reading :D</p></blockquote></div></div>
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